# Browserless (slim)

> Browserless runs hosted headless browsers that agents drive over CDP, Playwright, REST endpoints, BrowserQL or its official MCP server. The same software can be self-hosted from a Docker image.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless.md (~8,200 tokens) · this version ~1,880 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

**BB · 70.4/100 · rank #135 of 722 · #4 in Browser automation · agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: An OpenAPI document, llms.txt and a 14-tool MCP server with annotations on every tool make the service easy for an agent to read, and the free plan needs no card. The API token travels in the URL query string by default, cloud tokens carry no scopes, and no machine payment route exists.

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: browserless.io, Inc. · category: Browser automation · legal entity: browserless.io, Inc. · provenance 77/100
- Endpoint: `https://production-sfo.browserless.io` (HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio)
- Auth: OAuth or key · pricing: Freemium · x402: no · licence: SSPL 1.0 or a commercial licence for the core server and the MCP server. The BAP TypeScript SDK is MIT. BrowserQL, stealth and other cloud additions are proprietary
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Surfaces: REST endpoints (/screenshot, /pdf, /content, /scrape, /smart-scrape, /search, /map, /crawl, /agent/run), BrowserQL over GraphQL, CDP and Playwright WebSockets, and the MCP server. Graded here as the hosted cloud API with its hosted MCP server
- MCP server: Official, hosted at https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp (Streamable HTTP only) and on npm as @browserless.io/mcp 1.36.0 for stdio, Node.js 24 or newer. 14 documented tools, one stateful browser agent, eight stateless tools and five read-only account tools
- Free tier: 1,000 units a month, 2 concurrent browsers, 2-minute sessions, 1 day of replay storage, no card
- Limits: Concurrent browsers 2 on Free, 5 on Prototyping, 30 on Starter and 80 on Scale when billed monthly (10, 40 and 100 billed annually). Session length 2, 15, 30 and 60 minutes. No hourly or daily unit limit. 429 when concurrency and the queue are full
- Regions: San Francisco (production-sfo), London (production-lon) and Amsterdam (production-ams). Stored data stays in the United States on the shared fleet
- Billing rules: Requests rejected before a browser starts, such as a 429, cost nothing. A run that fails midway is charged for the browser time and proxy traffic used. An overage spend cap can be set in account settings
- Self-hosting: Docker images at ghcr.io/browserless for Chromium, Chrome, Firefox, WebKit and Edge under SSPL 1.0 or a commercial licence. Enterprise images add BrowserQL, stealth and session recording
- Machine payment: None. No x402, MPP or L402 found
- Prices: Unit overage, Prototyping plan $0.002 per credit; Unit overage, Starter plan $0.0017 per credit; Unit overage, Scale plan $0.0015 per credit; Browser time at the overage rate, Prototyping plan $0.24 per browser-hour; Browser time at the overage rate, Starter plan $0.204 per browser-hour; Browser time at the overage rate, Scale plan $0.18 per browser-hour; Prototyping plan $35 per month (plan); Starter plan $200 per month (plan); Scale plan $500 per month (plan)

- Scores: Reliability 82, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 89, Agent ergonomics 78, Security & auth 53, Payments & pricing 40, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 82, Transparency & trust 62 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Graded as a hosted service, on the cloud API and its hosted MCP server. · Schema & documentation, OpenAPI 3.0.0 at www.browserless.io/swagger.json with 87 paths and 100 operations, and Zod-typed inputs on every MCP tool in the source (25)… · Agent ergonomics, The full MCP server documents 14 tools (15), and a separate connector endpoint exposes five. · Security & auth, An account holds up to 20 named API tokens, each shown once and revocable on its own, with a rotation guide. · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 on any endpoint. · Maintenance & community, @browserless.io/mcp 1.36.0 was published on 5 October 2026 and the core server 2.57.0 on 30 September (30). · Transparency & trust, The core server and MCP server are source-available under SSPL 1.0, which is not an OSI licence, or a commercial licence, and the cloud addi…
- Sources: 28, open questions: 8, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: browser.control, browser.hosted, browser.debug, scraping.js-render, scraping.anti-bot, scraping.proxies, web.scrape, web.crawl, web.search, pdf.generate
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browserless.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/browserless.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless from a page on browserless.io or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/browserless/browserless, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Send the token as `Authorization: Bearer` to the MCP server. On REST and WebSocket routes it goes in `?token=`, so keep those URLs out of logs
2. Close sessions as soon as the work is done. Browser time bills one unit per 30 seconds, rounded up, idle or not
3. For multi-step work with `browserless_agent`, set `keepSessionAlive: true` on the first call and pass the returned `sessionId` after that. Sessions are one-shot by default since server 1.33.0
4. On 429, back off and retry. It means the plan's concurrency limit or queue is full, usually from sessions left open
5. Match the path to the protocol. Use `/chromium` for CDP clients and `/chromium/playwright` only for `playwright.connect()`

## Connect

```bash
npx -y @browserless.io/mcp
```

```bash
curl -X POST "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/screenshot?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"url": "https://scraping-sandbox.netlify.app/dashboard"}' -o response.png
```

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http browserless https://mcp.browserless.io/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE"
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/browserless

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Spider | BB | 74.1 | web.scrape, web.crawl, web.search, browser.hosted, scraping.proxies, scraping.js-render, scraping.anti-bot | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/spider-cloud.min.md |
| Steel | BB | 70.4 | browser.control, browser.hosted, browser.debug, web.scrape, scraping.proxies, scraping.anti-bot, pdf.generate | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/steel.min.md |
| Anchor Browser | B | 67.3 | browser.control, browser.hosted, browser.debug, web.scrape, scraping.proxies, scraping.anti-bot, pdf.generate | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/anchor-browser.min.md |
| Scrapeless | C | 54.1 | web.scrape, web.crawl, web.search, browser.hosted, scraping.proxies, scraping.js-render, scraping.anti-bot | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapeless.min.md |
| Scrapfly | B | 69.6 | web.scrape, web.crawl, browser.hosted, scraping.proxies, scraping.js-render, scraping.anti-bot | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scrapfly.min.md |


## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)